Waffleing
by xSn0wangel
Summary: It's Gray's turn to pick the movie, so Natsu doesn't complain about the stupid romantic comedy his best friend decides on. However, he isn't about to let the hand holding slide. A Gratsu One-shot!
The movie playing on the giant silver screen in front of me became a total blur as my heart thudded painfully against my chest. Stiffly reclined in a cushiony red theatre chair, my right hand tightly gripped the arm rest, while my other was caged by Gray's cold fingers.

I'd been minding my own business, watching the slightly boring romantic comedy that my best friend had picked, when he'd reached over and slid his fingers in between mine like it was completely normal!

I had no idea what the hell he was thinking!

Well, I guess I should've known something was up when he didn't choose the new action packed movie that we'd been talking about for weeks. But when he stepped up to the counter and ordered his ticket I didn't say anything about it. It was his turn to pick after all and I wondered if maybe he just needed some cheering up or something. His girlfriend had dumped him a couple weeks ago and he'd been sort of distant from me ever since, which honestly made the cheesy movie the last one I'd expected him to want to see. However, I wasn't going to complain if it made him smile a little more.

My eye twitched as I tried not to stare down at our hands. Sure it wasn't by far the worst possible thing Gray could have been doing to me, yet _how_ he was doing it was pretty mortifying!

His ex girlfriend, Lucy, had spent a lot of time hanging out with us during the time they were still together. Lucy was a sweet girl, unless I irritated her too much, so I didn't mind being the third wheel with the two of them as long as they kept the PDA to a minimum, which was luckily most of the time.

Lucy always complained that I didn't know about anything romantic, even though I'd had several girlfriends, so she always felt the need to enlighten me. I figured that having a girl tell me what girls like might be helpful in the future, which usually was enough to convince me to pay attention. Therefore, one day, the blonde beauty took it upon herself to educate me about the two main types of hand holding.

She said the first way to hold someone's hand is called pancaking which is the common hand shake hold. According to her, if two people were holding hands this way, they were probably just good friends. However, the second type of hand holding, waffling, where the couple's fingers folded over each other, really meant _something_.

After she was done explaining it to me, I gave her the biggest what the fuck look. Comparing holding hands to breakfast foods was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard! Did girls just sit around and come with the dumbest ways to read into what guys did? I tried to imagine it: _'OMG Levyyyyy! Gray and I us just waffled! He's totally going to propose now!'_

God help us all.

I'm assuming it was mostly the look on my face that caused Gray to laugh at us. Giving Lucy a smile, he gently laced his fingers with his girlfriend's as he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

As I tried not to puke at the sickingly sweet couple moment they were having, I realized that Gray was just trying to make her happy. He was romancing her and all that jazz because girls like Lucy love that stuff.

But–

Now, his hand was waffling mine! Gray knew that I knew what his ex had said about this shit so why the in the world was he just casually doing it?!

I turned towards him when he laughed at something that happened in the stupid movie and I guess he felt my eyes on him because he glanced over to me as well.

Calm blue eyes, bright from the movie screen, carefully searched my face. I'm not completely sure what he saw, but he squeezed my hand once before letting go and focusing his gaze back on the film.

Even though he'd released me, my heart was still pounding and my left hand was warm and clammy. My thoughts were racing as I wondered why he'd done it in the first place and why he'd abruptly stopped. Was he just messing around or something? There wasn't any other logical explanation for holding my hand…

My eyes narrowed as I decided, if he wanted to mess me up then two could play at that game!

The challenge was on as I snatched his hand up from his armrest and held it in my own. It felt odd at first so I readjusted the hold until it felt more comfortable. I glared down at my hand for liking the position on top of his better, like a damn girl!

I felt him flinch slightly as I moved his hand around and I could tell he was trying really hard to look interested in the movie. From the way his eyes flickered I wondered if he was blushing but I couldn't tell for sure in the lowlight of the movie theatre. Eventually he seemed to get over the initial shock and began rubbing slow circles with his thumb over the top of my hand.

However, I wasn't satisfied at all because I'd been affected way more by his move than he'd been by mine! Which obviously meant that I needed to kick it up a notch!

Glancing around us as inconspicuously as possible it dawned on me that Gray had picked a seat up in the back corner, a spot typically reserved for couples that weren't planning on even watching the movie! Considering we were seeing a matinee on a Wednesday, there weren't a lot of people in the place anyways, but for him to intentionally sit us there, why the hell didn't I notice that before?

At least we wouldn't have to worry about an audience.

I pulled my hand out of his and pushed up the armrest in between us to get it out of the way. Making sure Gray was still focused on the move, I gently leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder. In my head it had been a smart move, but I was pissed when I discovered I couldn't see his reaction.

However, I didn't expect the strong arm that slid around my shoulders. Gray's fingers rubbed against my upper arm and shoulder in what could have been have been soothing gesture.

If only that was enough to calm me down!

The bastard was so good at getting the upper hand that I questioned my next move. I was already cuddling my best friend…what more could I possibly do?

I craned my neck slightly in order to see Gray's face. There was a small serene smile on his lips, a glimmer in his eyes that wasn't a reflection of the movie, and he was much closer than I thought he was, with his head tilted towards mine. Maybe he wanted to rest his cheek against my scalp but couldn't muster up the courage to do so. It was actually, kind of cute.

It was then that I knew the way I was acting, wasn't fair to Gray. To me it had just been a competition that I'd been trying to beat him in. However, it was dawning on me that he wasn't trying to one-up me, he wasn't trying to prove anything aside from having feelings for me. Unless he was just using me for comfort or something since he didn't have a girlfriend anymore. But we were watching a movie that was supposed to be funny so that didn't quite add up either.

Gray had never hinted that he'd felt anything for me that wasn't platonic. Still he'd waffled my hand a few minutes ago which meant that I was _something_ to him.

 _Something_ could just be best friends, right?

My eyes snapped back to the movie when the two main characters started yelling confessions of love at each other. I could feel Gray's body lightly shake with laughter at the humor of the situation. Stuff like that, sharing feelings and whatnot, I believed should always be said seriously because otherwise the other person might get the wrong idea.

Kind of like the wrong idea I was giving Gray as I leaned against his shoulder. Sighing, I shifted my weight back over and he instinctively released me. Settling back into my chair, I closed my eyes as a dull ache began pounding against my temple.

"'Tsu?" Gray quietly cleared his throat and tried again. "Natsu? Are you okay?" he whispered in a voice raspy from not using it.

I had no idea what to say that wouldn't make me sound like a terrible friend. _'My bad Gray, thought you were joking!'_ didn't seem like a very good response.

But it wasn't like I could return his feelings, right? Gray was my best friend and he'd been beside me for so long, yet I'd never thought about him like _that_ before. He'd helped me with my relationships and I helped him with his, without anything coming up. I never heard him make any comments about hot guys or something.

I didn't realize I was staring at the floor until he lifted my chin with the palm of his hand.

He was close enough that I could smell his peppermint gum and the subtle cologne he'd bought for Lucy's sake. Well, at the time I thought that was what it was for, when he'd asked me which of the two he liked I thought he should get. He'd told me that if I liked it, then Lucy would too…

"What are you thinking?" he whispered through barely parted lips. It was a stupid question considering he always claimed that I was an open book so I didn't bother answering.

I repressed the urge to shiver as his cold fingers slid past my ear and gripped the back of my neck.

He leaned closer and closer and I shut my eyes right before his forehead fell against mine.

"What are you doing?" I muttered in confusion. His chilly skin cooled my nearly feverish skin.

"You didn't answer my question," he said matter-of-factly as his nose brushed across my own.

"So I gotta figure, if you want to think like an idiot," his hand gestured to me as he spoke, "then you've gotta act like an idiot."

I shoved him back in anger and crossed my arms over my chest with a huff. He laughed quietly as he shifted in his seat to face the movie again.

It looked like it was almost over. The blonde haired girl that was way too pretty to play the girl-next-door role, had overcome her character flaw of being walked all over thanks to the help of her new quirky dark haired boyfriend. Of course they were celebrating her newfound confidence by going on a romantic date.

Groaning at the clichéd events, I knew that even I could come up with something better than the garbage happening on screen. Still, I couldn't stop myself from seeing the girl's face transform into Lucy's.

"You ready to go?"

My head snapped up to see that Gray was already standing beside me and credits were flowing up the screen behind him. I simply nodded as I stood and followed him out of the dark room into the sunshine. He drove us there since it didn't make sense for us to drive separately when we were both at my house, so we were headed towards his car.

"So what did you think?" he asked with a rather light tone for such a heavy question. In hindsight, that should have kept me from producing the rant that happened afterwards.

"I think that if you liked me then you should've just said something instead of waffeling my fucking hand during a movie that I thought we were going to see to help you get over your ex!"

He stopped walking towards the car as I spoke, but I wasn't finished.

"And I'm wondering why it's so damn hard for you to get over her if you're gay which is another thing you could've just said instead of doing all that! What is your deal?!"

His cheeks were red and not from the sun. Running a hand through his bangs, Gray was silent for about twenty seconds. He usually only had that look on his face when he had to tell me something unpleasant.

"First of all I'm not gay, I'm bi," he explained as he shoved his fists into his pockets. "And I don't see what Lucy has to do with anything. I'm not upset about us breaking up because I broke up with her."

I probably looked like a fish gasping for air.

"She didn't like that whenever we hung out, it was always with you. She wanted us to have more alone time."

"Then why didn't you just tell me?"I interjected. Seriously, I would have backed off to give my man some more time with his girl.

"Because Lucy was pretty and all, and really nice, but I'd rather hang out with you."

He grabbed my hand again and for some reason I let him.

"And after I broke up with her, I kind of realized that hanging out, wasn't the only thing I wanted to do with you."

His fingers wiggled their way in-between mine as he smiled softly.

I was speechless as I stared at him and was at a total loss.

Once again he wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and pulled me forwards, only this time, it was his lips that pressed against mine.

I'd been mad at him for not talking to me about Lucy and his feelings, but hadn't he explained everything? Hadn't I grabbed his hand earlier, held it comfortably, hadn't I leaned on his shoulder, let his arm pull me closer? Had it been a challenge at all, or was that just my excuse for wanting to do those things?

As his mouth moved slowly yet urgently against my own, the more I wanted _something_ from him.

 _Something_ that wasn't just best friends.

When Gray pulled back, I blinked a few times as I tried to piece my thoughts together.

"Do you want to try it out and if it doesn't work we can go back to being just friends?" he asked with a little uncertainty in his voice.

Tightening my hand around his, I started towards the car again, practically dragging him behind me.

"If this is a date, then you're buying dinner."

He just laughed and yanked on my arm hard enough to pull my backwards. Tripping over my feet slightly, I was rather surprised when he hugged my back to steady me.

Breath ghosting across my ear he whispered, "As long as I get some _strawberry dessert_."

L7L7L7L7


End file.
